Newt Gingrich: Here’s my strategy for keeping a House Republican majority in November

On Wednesday, I was honored to speak at the Winter Meeting of the Republican National Committee about the how important and impactful the 2018 elections could be for America. Below is an excerpt of my remarks.

Let me thank all of you, particularly those I was just chatting with, for your generosity. I have been active in the Republican Party a fairly long time, longer than the younger people here have been alive. And I want to talk to you from the heart. When Ronna and I talked about coming by, I think it was precisely because I had enough distance to look at these things and to be involved on a number of occasions.

First of all, I thought last night’s State of the Union rivaled anything that Ronald Reagan did. It was just astonishingly effective. President Trump found specific individuals whose stories weren’t just important as wonderful human stories, but they each illustrated a part of the American tapestry in the American culture in a way that reminded all of us America is such a wonderful country. I thought it was a very powerful and very effective speech. Read more …

President Trump is on the hunt for a 2018 issue—a strong follow-up to his tax-cut victory that will motivate voters and gain bipartisan support. Democrats are pushing for an infrastructure bill, inviting the president to spend with them. House GOP leaders are mulling entitlement reform—a noble goal, if unlikely in a midterm cycle.

Fortunately for the president, there’s a better idea out there that’s already a Trump theme. It’s also a sure winner with the public, so Republicans ought to be able to pressure Democrats to join.

Let 2018 be the year of civil-service reform—a root-and-branch overhaul of the government itself. Call it Operation Drain the Swamp. Read more …

The great political surprise of 2018 will be the size of the Republican victory.

After members of the elite media have spent two years savaging President Trump, lying about Republican legislation, and reassuring themselves that Republican defeat was inevitable, the size of the GOP victory in 2018 will be an enormous shock.

Casselman contends that the Democratic victory in Alabama may have blocked a year-long embarrassment and actually strengthened Republican prospects in the Senate. He asserts there may be a new political wave coming, but no one knows whether it will be a red or blue wave.

As I listened to the end of the year “analysts,” I was struck by how little they know, how little they have questioned their own mistakes, and how mutually reinforcing their false information has been.

Adams, the author of Dilbert, has a list of 20 political opinions and predictions made about President Trump and his Administration, which were just plain wrong. He suggests if you were wrong about 15 or more of these assertions, you might quit talking about politics while Trump is in the White House. By Adams’s standard, most elite “analysts” would have to be quiet, because they have been so consistently wrong about Trump.

As I listened to the end of the year “analysts,” I was struck by how little they know, how little they have questioned their own mistakes, and how mutually reinforcing their false information has been.

These are not analysts. These are liberal propagandists. Much of what they assert is just plain wrong. Fake news is, sadly, an accurate term. And the topic about which they have been the most fake is the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

First, the media lied about the tax bill in an effort to convince most Americans their taxes would go up. Read more …

Voters Increasingly Favor Democrats for Congress, New Poll Shows

Voters increasingly want Democrats to control Congress after the 2018 elections, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll that offers several warning signs for the Republican Party.

Asked which party they prefer to lead Congress after next year’s midterms, 50% said the Democrats and 39% said Republicans. That 11-point lead is wider than the 7-point advantage Democrats held in October, and it is the first double-digit advantage for the party since late 2008, ahead of the Democrats’ win in the presidential election that year.

The poll also found that 59% of Democratic voters are showing the highest levels of interest in the coming midterms, compared with 49% of Republicans.

Pollsters who conducted the survey said that taken together, the two findings show that Democrats have an edge in enthusiasm at this early stage of the campaign.

At the same time, President Donald Trump’s job approval rating ticked up 3 percentage points in the new survey from October, to 41%, due in part to higher marks from members of his own party. Some 56% in the new poll disapproved of his job performance.

In the past, a Democratic advantage on the question of who should control Congress hasn’t translated into electoral gains unless the lead reached double digits. The party led by 10 percentage points on average in 2006, ahead of retaking control of the House and Senate that year, and it led by 14 points on average in 2008, when Democrats gained more than 20 House seats.

Smaller leads haven’t accompanied significant pickups in congressional elections, in part because of voter turnout among some Democratic groups is lower than among Republican groups, and due to congressional district lines that in many places favor Republicans.

Colorado Sen. Matt Jones, D-Louisville, said Wednesday he will push for new laws to give local governments control over oil and gas operations within their borders.

Currently, state officials at the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) have the final say over many aspects of oil and gas operations — and require energy companies to work closely with local officials and neighborhoods when new wells are located near homes and businesses. Local governments regulate issues such as traffic and dust control at and around well sites.

But for years, state and local officials, as well as industry representatives, have tussled over which level of government — state or local — should have the final word on where new wellsites are located.

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